Like most of you, when I think of cutting-edge mecha design, I think of one place: Canada. And the Reboot Exo-Skeleton (hereafter RES) is the nadir of Canadian mecha.

Reboot was the first fully CGI-animated long-form cartoon series, debuting in 1994 and airing for three seasons. Vancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment (later of Beast Wars fame) created and produced the show. I’ve never seen the cartoon, but it appears to be similar to Tron, with a band of heroes adventuring in virtual realm of data or something. British comic artist Brendan McCarthy is credited with the designs for the entire property, but I can’t be sure that he designed this vehicle.

Irwin, another Canadian company, manufactured the Reboot toys. Before Reboot, Irwin was primarily a Canadian distributor for foreign toy companies. After Reboot, Irwin filed for bankruptcy. The Reboot figures are typical mid-nineties mass market figures, workmanlike and respectable, but nothing special. I believe the RES was the only vehicle released.

The RES comes in a large glossy box (10.5” x 15” x 4”) with CGI renderings of the suit, but no photographs of the actual product, which I find irritating. You have no idea what you’re actually buying. In this case, the renderings are much more detailed than the toy inside. Both sides of the box have the same graphic, but one side is in French. Two versions of the RES were released, one with a figure included and one without. Mine is the latter. I picked up the pictured Dot Matrix figure separately.

Inside, the RES rests in a junky corrugated cardboard box (though it was originally twist-tied in). It requires minimal structural assembly (the arms plug into the shoulders, the tail plugs into the body), and there are a few pieces of kibble to tack on. A utilitarian instruction sheet explaining the process is included.

Once you’ve assembled the suit, it stands at an impressive 13.5”.

The RES is an obvious homage to Ripley’s Power Loader from Aliens. The industrial yellow color scheme, the clamp-like “hand,” and the pneumatic pistons all nicely evoke the Power Loader without copying it. It occurs to me that the tail is Geiger-esque, but I may be reaching.

The total design is just okay for me, though. The proportions feel off, with those wide hips and asymmetrical arms. There’s an awful lot of visual clutter, though certain areas, like the legs, are nicely detailed. The pilot figure just stands on a platform with a belt holding it onto the suit.

The suit usually tips forward, and the figure hangs off with no leg support. Presumably the armor is controlled by the character’s mind, but I’d like to at least see a helmet or something connecting the two. The box shows the Dot character wearing a visor and light armor the same color as the suit, which looks much better.

The RES is well articulated, with ankle, knee and hip joints where you’d expect, but the upper body is unusual. The shoulders are tilted at an angle, and while this looks good, the arm movements are non-intuitive. The clamp arm only bends in one direction at the elbow, while the other arm can twist at the elbow. Several segments of the tail can bend and rotate. Both “hands” can grip. While the shoulders are heavily detented (so much so that they feel like they’re going to break on every click), the rest of the joints are just rivets, and mushy. The whole thing slowly melts to the ground unless it’s perfectly balanced. The tail is essential to keeping the whole thing upright.

The plastic is solid, but the spindly arms are longer than the plastic can easily support, and they tend to sag and bend easily.

The finishes are a tad undercooked. You have gray and yellow ABS, gray paint apps at the clamp teeth and feet, and silver paint apps at pistons and hips. It looks fine, but simple, like a toddler’s construction toy. I can’t help but imagine how great it would look with a custom paint job and wash, ala Jin Saotome.

I like this toy but I don’t love it. The novelty of an obscure powered armor suit is compelling, but not enough to overcome the toy’s shortcomings. Even though it’s Canadian/British-designed, it has a very American quality to it, lacking a certain subtlety and refinement. The RES would be great for kit-bashing, though, and it’s fairly common and cheap.

A bunch of the Reboot toys had concepts from only one episode of the show. I have "stealth mode" Hack and Slash, again a one-episode wonder. A friend of mine has some sort of black and silver Megabyte. Admittedly though, in this case they used existing toy molds just with a new color scheme.

this show and it's toy line are some of the worst, souless, board room-developed products to be made in the 1990's. I'd rather have the lung disease from burning all of these toys in a fire than to look at them for more than a second longer. Pure spoiled milk, pure taint. Complete void of anything entertaining or worthwhile. Just a glance makes my stomach turn. Bland. An excuse to sell toys to kids. Horrible animation, exactly why people hate CGI in animation... whoever hired these fools to later make Beast Wars should be forced to live in a cardboard box under a toxic-waste infested bridge. I can't believe people actually were paid to make those shows... waste of time in 1996, a waste of internet space in 2009.

It sounds to me like you never watched more than one second of the show and you're basing your rather over-the-top hatred of the show on something else related to it.

The show was actually somewhat interesting and had a combined Tron / Matrix vibe while being one of the first CG shows on TV. Later on the plot got very serious and was a tale of revolution, somewhat juxtaposed to the previous episodes where it was all games and light comedy. Whether or not that was intentional as some sort of set up or just an, ahem, reboot of the show is not clear.

As far as it being soulless or void of anything entertaining, that statement again seems very broad and uninformed. If you don't like the show that's cool, but taking the time to type out a paragraph of disdain seems telling.

I feel the same way about your precious Beast Wars that you do about Reboot.

I beg to differ-! Beast Wars is one of the best TF series ever. Period. While both his toy form and onscreen appearance were rather bad, Dinobot was one of my favorite characters (along with a host of others like Rattrap, Megatron, Inferno, and Rampage & Depth Charge). We also had one of the first serious on-screen Cybertronian relationships- and star-crossed at that- between the shapely bad-girl Blackarachnia and honorable & cliched Silverbolt. My interest in TF began with Beast Wars, and I know the franchise by it first. So, for a G1 fan to disown it in such fashion- and I know I must tread very lightly here- after its undeniable success is surprising to say the least.
While the series as a whole was based on both the Marvel Comics' and G1's interpretation of the 1984 series, the first season was not very focused and had a bunch of filler episodes, and then later in the shorter second & third seasons it narrowed its focus to become a true sequel series. (Like many series, it became more interesting and involved when cancellation was inevitable.)

Much (though not entirely) like The Big R above, I think you need to go back and re-watch the show before you pass such a'har-r-r-r-sh criticism. Though there is certainly no accounting for individual taste, a second viewing may be in order.
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CollectionDX Staff

I really didn't think of it as a slap in the face I grew up watching G1 too. I found it as the only thing on TV in years that was about the Transformers, remember the statue of Optimus Prime holding the disks that's tribute (Speak up Beast Wars Fans). The show had it's moments nothing special but the later series Beast Machines was a lot more mature for a kids show. Reboot I watched from time to time, was alright... but this toys straight out sucks. Looks like they tore off the rubber mask/covering on some animatronic ride at Disney. Pure garbage like the other guy said...

I always thought the character design for Dot was cute but I never saw the cartoon or remember many of these toys being released and was only reminded about Dot last week when I saw a dealer at Frank & Sons have a Dot figure for sale at his booth.

I had no idea that Reboot was controversial. I thought it looked a little meh when I watched a few minutes in the nineties, a little soulless. And I thought the same of BW. When I was researching this article (which I think is a perfectly good use of 'internet space,' thank you very much), I found whole online communities obsessed with it (though I realize that there are many more online communities obsessed with infantilism, but still). There are new movies coming out soon.

PS a certain kind of comic nerd will remember Brendan McCarthy's Shade covers, of which I was a huge fan.

i didn't mean your review was a waste of space. It's really good as usual!

I meant more ReBoot in general. The websites devoted to it. To me it's like a Mountain Dew can combined with Windows Paint. And I can't believe I wasted a few more seconds of my life to type about ReBoot again. I guess ReBoot heads would look at Mazinger or Macross and feel the same way...

I think this has to do with age more than anything else. there are some who love Super Friends, or other 70's cartoons, but can't stand He-Man; and He-Man-era 80's fans who can't stand ReBoot or 90's cartoons; and 90's fans who attack modern kids shows. It's a big cycle over time.

For me and a number of older fans, this show is a big turning point in animation in the 90's as it moved more into translation of foreign shows, and cheapy CGI productions, rather than original shows. It more or less followed the trend formed by He-Man and GI Joe, as those cartoons really served no purpose other than a half hour of advertising for the toys. Again, nothing new, but this program stirs up the hate in many older fans, just as Pokemon or Naruto does in 20-somethings now.

If you grew up with it, chances are you're going to view it with rose colored glasses, and not the cranky objective view of someone who was an older teenager when this originally came out.

..b/c its too long. and not interesting to me but any way...
Good points.

Age is a factor but your memories are too. Its the reason for the web site you feel are a waste of space on the internet. they feel that this show is the greatest thing ever to them.Just as some feel he-man and G.I. joe are the greatest and created fan sites for those shows. I grew up watching Dragon Ball Z . I do not wish to re-live it though. mainly b/c its too long and drags on. Also due to the invention of VHS tap, the video rental store, and cable television ( mainly toonami) I was able to watch Robotech (working on buying Macross), various episodes of G1 Transformers, Bravestar, Voltron, Silverhawks, ThunderCats, GI Joe, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors and other shows that people consider some of the greatest animated shows ever made.
I like CG animation over hand drawn when its used in a good way. Ex: the transformation of a Valkyrie from fighter to battleroid in fractions of a second then back again.
Bad use: The new Iron Lad ...er i mean... Iron man series.
Beast War does have some bad designs for transformers but so deoes the all the other versions of transformes. it was a new story to expand the transformers universe even more. Even if it had odd/ dumb plots such optimus primal taking the unicron matrix into him self so that he could keep optimus prime alive while they repaired him. which caused him to turn into a cool yet odd looking ape,truck,jet, robot transformer. but it did win an award. Which is an accomplishment for the whole transformers universe. even if it was for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation.But it did spawn some awesome toys in my opinion.
But these are opinions.
But cask A qusetion to every one:

Why do like/ dislike cg so much?

And if your wondering I'm 22. so I'm actually old enough to have an intrest in naruto but as explained its too long and too much like dbz.

I remember having the exo suit as a kid. It's a shame it never survived my childhood though. It brings back such nostalgia though.

>this show and it's toy line are some of the worst, souless, board room-developed products to be made in the 1990's

ReBoot? Souless? Hahah, no. Bob and Megabyte's guitar battle? BDSM jokes everywhere? And everything from Season 3? It's not soulless simply because it has CGI. And the CGI was terrible,I'll admit that but it was the first CGI show out there. And season 3 was fantastic. It had fantastic characters, which they had the balls to 'kill'. Most 'board room developed products' wouldn't have the main character of the show killed off, then the only other character kids would identify with got his eye stabbed out... I don't understand how someone can call it soulless. Have you even heard Tony Blum's voice.

I know what it's like to hate TV shows because of they're style. Flash based TV shows are generally crap, with some exceptions. ReBoot is the exception to CGI being crap.

But the toys were pretty horrible, lol.

If you think it's a waste of time, why did you read the review and bash it multiple times...

Okay, first of all, Enthusiast, you mentioned "great" and Jin Saotome in the same sentence. You definitely lose points for that, brutha! ;) I'm not gonna bash that dude for the jackholes paying hundreds of dollars for his crap. More power to the guy for hustling morons out of their money. But seriously...his actual customs pretty much suck ass.

Anyway, moving on. I saw, maybe, two or three episodes of ReBoot back in the day when I was awake and couldn't force myself back to sleep. They were pretty bad. And this toy sure seems to evoke those memories! Actually, I take that back. This toy evokes two things (that actually aren't bad): the aforementioned Power Loader fromAliens...and Exosquad. I really liked *that* cartoon!

And speaking of cartoons, GrayFox, you mentioned Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors being one of the greatest of all time? Yikes! Hehe...I grew up with that one, and loved it as a kid. A year or so ago, I torrented the whole show...and couldn't get past the fifth or sixth episode! :P

I more or less agree with The Big R...though I grew up with both Super Friends *and* HeMan...and loved 'em both. But as for Beast Wars/Machines, I just do NOT get it. In the slightest. Seriously...why do people like those shows??? I seem to recall an episode about the rhino-bot catching a cold and sneezing explosively all the time. Horrendous (and don't even get me started on the toys). The show seemed vapid and uninteresting. Sure, the G1 cartoon was vapid and cliched, but those heroic cliches were at least enjoyable to watch!

Oh my Gods- you did NOT just dis "The Low Road", did you? Did you!? That is easily the genuinely-funniest episode in "Beast Wars", IMO. We finally got to see Rattrap and Dinobot have at each other without restraint (which was a long time coming), the timing in many of the gags was awesome, the characters' reactions to situations were priceless, and what better way to defeat Megatron-tachi in "the most-humiliating" way than to blast him with a mushroom-cloud energon fart at point-blank range!? There was absolutely NOTHING wrong with that episode. No!
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CollectionDX Staff

I think it is a matter of your generation. Season 2 of ReBoot got better, and had some great moments. Season 3 was fantastic. If you've only seen a few episodes it's probably not fair to judge. I recently torrented ReBoot to rewatch, and couldn't watch the first season either.

Also I loved Beast Wars, and it introduced me to the 80's Transformers. Both of which I enjoyed. I mean really, Transformers was always a giant toy commercial so I find it hard to judge.

Just watch this and maybe you'll understand where our generation comes from:

Does anyone remember how cool Mighty Orbots was?! That was a Saturday morning cartoon ahead of it's time. Or we're you to busy watching The Flintstones & Shmoo cartoon. Man, they had a lack of Saturday morning cartoon ideas in the 80's.

I loved the Orbots, I thought that evil planet antagonist Umbra with all the eyes was creepy. They only made 13 episodes as there was some sort of lawsuit. It was an absurd show but that's what I liked about it. The nerd orbot designer made two sexy female robots and two robots that were super dumb. The joke was that if he was so smart why did he design two of his robots so stupid! It had so many contradictions but I loved it anyway.

I barely remember the Schmoo cartoons but I'm, sure they dumbed it down for the kids. Al Capp is one of my favorite comic strip artists ever...and he sure knew how to draw women.

Coming in on another review late from catching up (does anyone else go back and read the comments like me?).

So much to comment about here from all the other comments AND this toy. Just got the orange repaint with the exclusive figure and it's pretty cool. I too am a fan of anything light mech/power loader suit and it's pretty fun so far. Most importantly it IS a great toy for kit bashing. I bought it based on this review AND in the interest of possibly using the legs to kit bash me a District 9 Prawn Mech. We'll see.

I see both sides of the argument started by Big R's post. I've hated on some 90's and recent stuff while defending other garbage from the 80's cuz it's nostalgic to me, purely. I think that's the bottom line here. Mighty Orbots is hard to watch for the stories and dialogue but the music, design, robots, and incredible animation are kick-ass. And it reminds me of those blissful days of Saturday morning and cereal and toys... ReBoot could never give me that.

When I'm bored, I go back and read past comments. Sometimes I see new comments there that have been posted since, and respond to them... just like this.
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CollectionDX Staff